Saturday, April 26, 2008

Draft Day Blues

Well, Howie Long's kid is a Ram and McFadden is a Raider....

1. Miami - Jake Long (OT-Michigan)
2. St. Louis - Chris Long (DE-Virginia)
3. Atlanta - Matt Ryan (QB-Boston College)
4. Oakland - Darren McFadden (RB-Arkansas)
5. Kansas City - Glenn Dorsey (DT-LSU)
6. Jets - Vernon Gholston (DE-tOSU)
7. New Orleans - Sedrick Ellis (DT-USC)
8. Jacksonville - Derrick Harvey (DE-Florida)
9. Cincinnati - Keith Rivers (OLB-USC)
10. New England - Jerod Mayo (OLB-Tennessee)

Now, my breakdown.

The fact that so many teams have picked players from the PAC-10 (USC especially) tells me that professional football will continue its steady decline in quality, leading me to further eschew watching on Sunday. I think that I only counted eight players chosen from the SEC in the first two rounds.

Of the top 10 picks, I think that we can clearly see which players will be still around in three years and which ones will not. We know that of the first ten, the Jets, the Saints, and the Bengals definitely wasted a pick, but do not discount the possibility of the very first player picked providing plenty of opportunities to ridicule Miami even more than last year.

I can picture Jake Long right this moment with a loaded gun in his hand, naked and covered with Crisco or some other cheap pseudo-lubricant, drunk dialing old girlfriends in the O-Line at Michigan, trying to relive the good old times of playing in the Big-10, where there is absolutely no talent whatsoever......Allah-on-a-Pogostick! The Big-10 is terrible.

Of all the picks, obviously the McFadden one is the most interesting to me, but I think that Matt Ryan (for reasons unknown, it's just a hunch) will be around the longest, but not with Atlanta. If Ryan starts, which is highly probable, I see David Carr's getting-sacked record being shattered. That record is 76 times, by the way. But, that also will allow Jerious Norwood, the awesome RB from Mississippi State, plenty of carries and short pass receptions. Norwood is awesome.

And while Dorsey is a great player, it dumbfounds me that KC would ever pick someone that would actually provide some kind of defensive anchor, it just seems completely out of character.

Highlight of your day: Columbus Catfish swag atop the head of Bean (with her baby-sister) at the Rattlesnake Round-Up in Mangum, Oklahoma. Thanks for the lid, Basil.

You! Badmouth the PAC-10 and Big 10, NOW.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't forget about the ACC, why didn't you mention them...mmmm do I sense a southern strategy in analyzing the current state of college football. I would easily put the ACC below he Big 10 and Pac-10.

This is just a fad, the SEC is top dog now but the Big 10 is going to change rapidly...why you may ask, two words...Spread Option!! The offense Michigan is about to load up on, the same offense that embarrassed them twice at home (Appalachian state and Oregon). Appalachian did it with DI-AA talent (yes I said D1-AA, cram that BS name change..FCS or whatever) and Oregon came in later with the same approach but with D1-A talent the result was a obvious mismatch.

with Rich Rodriguez at Michigan, with the ability to attract real talent (it was tough at West Virginia U, who wants to go to West Virginia for school) Michigan will blow the doors off the Big 10 and then naturally all the other schools in the Big 10 will copy the same style of play and then bingo the Big10 will be on par with the SEC..where speed is valued over size/strength.

As for the Pac 10, with slick Rick now at UCLA (along with Norm Chow as OC)..the Pac 10 will soon become a legit two team league. If there is one thing slick Rick can do very well it is recruiting. See how USC can snatch any of them boys right in the heart of SEC country, slick Rich at UCLA will do the exact same thing. Give the Pac 10 a break, the only football powerhouse state is CA, which is where all the teams in the Pac 10 primarily recruit...Washington, Arizona, Oregon, etc...this dilutes the talent on the west coast but see how USC keeps the So Cal talent local...USC (and soon UCLA) will show you what CA talent can do. So I would say instead of calling it the Pac 10, I would suggest the Cali 2 (UCLA and USC) since they both will keep the local CA talent instate which will show the rest of the country what Cali football is all about. Name one SEC team that can stand toe to toe with USC?? They scarred down there.

One more thing this whole spread option offense craze has one downside, from the NFL point of view, it doesn't develop NFL QB passing skills...but it does put more decision making in the QB's hands instead of just following what a OC tells him..so maybe it is a tradeoff, lack of pure passing skills but greater/wiser decision making capability.

And one one more thing, as far as NFL talent goes..the league should contract, the talent is already looking diluted and it is pretty obvious...look at the QB position, Vinny Testeverde was still playing at 43!!, how many OL, DB, even RB, or whatever are playing at 43..because if the talent was readily available you wouldn't have 43yo guys no matter how good because you can't compare a 43yo man (physically) against a 23yo man, absence steroids or HGH, there is no comparison becasue after 19-20yrs in the league no way can your body hold up...look at all the old players that can barely walk, like Earl Campbell (I never saw him play in person, but his highlights are legendary) he has to get around in a golf cart and he can't stand up for long periods of time not to mention the possibility of early onset dementia (all the concussions, especially when Tatum popped him on that goal line play).

Where is T Priddy, or T Prime? Does he post on your blog.

Roderick

Paul Mitchell said...

The reason that I didn't mention the ACC is because the U and the Criminoles are the only two universities that have even mattered in football there. It goes without saying that they are only marginally better than the Ohio Valley Conference or the WAC.

The fact of the matter is this, the only reason that the PAC-10 is even mentioned is because all of the writers and sportscasters are in So-Cal or on the East coast, since there is NO football talent on the East coast, they have to tout the West coast or of course Ohio State, which I might add, has had their ass handed to them the last two years. Hawaii, Kansas, or Missouri would have done better to be in the Champ game and that is saying alot.

Michigan will not be a factor nationally, they might rule the Big 10, which is akin to being the best singing hyena in the opera.

And Roderick, look at the NFL great quarterbacks, except for Marino and Elway, most have not been 'big-arm' kinda guys. They are all shielded by great running games, which comes down the the O-line and the running backs. So the spread type quarterback has always been the most desired. What was Brady, seventh round? Montana?

If you are calling USC the other team in the PAC-10, you are just being silly. Those two Heisman winners are pro-football goats. And Troy Smith from tOSU was laughable.

WVU gets all their players from the Pittsburg area, by the way. It's only about two hours away.

Oh, and I am not too sure that T can even read. He certainly doesn't have the intelligence to understand what I write......ha. You do know that he attended Lanier, huh?

Anonymous said...

I agree with you about the ACC, but don't forget VaTech. That third legit team makes up for a lackluster league. But the U and the Noles ain't what they used to be...remember the U in the early part of this century, now that is what you call a dynasty. They pretty much owned the 1st round of the NFL draft for three years straight and even broke a USC record for the most 1st rounders (in a five year period I think).

The reason why The Ohio State buckeyes look so crappy in the championship game is the reason why the spread option embarrassed Michigan two weeks in September. Ohio state is not used to speed opponents, remember the Big 10 (Woody Hayes) philosophy...three yards and a cloud of dust. When Rich injects the Big 10 with the Spread option then that will prepare teams in that conference for when they meet teams from the South and West Coast. You saw what USC did to Illinois and Michigan right? Blew them out the box, speed kills.

There is one more thing about QBs in the NFL...the smart ones with good IQs have an advantage too, Eli Manning and Brady have similar IQs. Lets face it to memorize and improvise a complex offensive scheme the QB must posses a high IQ. This is why when teams have a black QB, I hear things like they had to simplify the offensive scheme (not every black QB, Donovan McNabb I never heard them say this..but many times I hear that alot when commentators are talking about black QBs, and it is irritating but I guess the best way to solve this is by placing the high IQ black players at QB first instead of at other positions). That is tantamount to saying our scheme is too complex for this darky to grasp, you know how them people are. But then again Dan Marino had a very very low wonderlic score (very close to Vince Young's score), which may explain why the Dolphins went to the superbowl only once with Dan Marino. Maybe his lack of IQ was exposed in high pressure/intense playoff situations, after his initial success in the league (teams adjusted to him, but he could not make further adjustments with such a low IQ).

Sorry I meant to say UCLA will be the other team in the Pac 10. USC is still the foundation of the league but soon once slick Rick has his recruiting classes locked and loaded USC will have company. It may not be equal company for a few more years but atleast it will be competitive after that. So mark my words after the next three years, the Pac 10 title will go to either USC or UCLA for near future, assumming slick Rick and Pete stay put. But until then, USC will continue to own the league.

What do you mean by bias for USC, they go and play anyone anywhere...they don't duck opponnets. Remember when they visited Arkansas and put a old fashion whuppin on them hogs.

So your saying Rich R, won' have better talent available at Michigan as compared to WVU. Considering he was able to do what he did with only Pittsburgh area talent, also don't forget that is Penn State recruiting turf, is impressive and now that he has Michigan as his platform..he is going to go apeshit on the Big 10. He'll do to the Big 10 what USC does to them every year, run rings around them until they are forced to be like him and adopt the spread option. And then the Big 10 will be ready for any team coming out of the SEC.

Roderick

Paul Mitchell said...

For some reason, we forgot all about trashing Notre Dame. They will always be able to get pretty good talent because they have so many fans nationally, that it is profitable to put their games on television. And they will still suck.

Anonymous said...

After what they did to Ty, I can't stand Notre Dame. I tune in to NBC just to see them lose and struggle....Charlie won those games with Ty's players. That what got him that contract, I don't hate him personally I just hate the way Notred Dame didn't give Ty his five year try out like every other Notre Dame coach. Notre Dame will never be a factor for the simple reason that after Lou Holtz left, they couldn't recruit the types of players Florida, LSU, and everybody else (except the ivy league and stanford) can recruit.

Whether Ty is a good coach or not, now we will tell because at UW he can bring in all the thugs he wants...just ask Jeremy Stevens. He won't be handicapped like he was at stanford and notre dame, academic standards what a joke...what a way not to win, snob ivy league wannabes.

Roderick

Paul Mitchell said...

There is not a coach worth a shit that cannot win in the PAC-10.

Two Dogs said...

There is not a coach worth a shit that cannot win in the PAC-10.

Anonymous said...

Don't forget about the ACC, why didn't you mention them...mmmm do I sense a southern strategy in analyzing the current state of college football. I would easily put the ACC below he Big 10 and Pac-10.

This is just a fad, the SEC is top dog now but the Big 10 is going to change rapidly...why you may ask, two words...Spread Option!! The offense Michigan is about to load up on, the same offense that embarrassed them twice at home (Appalachian state and Oregon). Appalachian did it with DI-AA talent (yes I said D1-AA, cram that BS name change..FCS or whatever) and Oregon came in later with the same approach but with D1-A talent the result was a obvious mismatch.

with Rich Rodriguez at Michigan, with the ability to attract real talent (it was tough at West Virginia U, who wants to go to West Virginia for school) Michigan will blow the doors off the Big 10 and then naturally all the other schools in the Big 10 will copy the same style of play and then bingo the Big10 will be on par with the SEC..where speed is valued over size/strength.

As for the Pac 10, with slick Rick now at UCLA (along with Norm Chow as OC)..the Pac 10 will soon become a legit two team league. If there is one thing slick Rick can do very well it is recruiting. See how USC can snatch any of them boys right in the heart of SEC country, slick Rich at UCLA will do the exact same thing. Give the Pac 10 a break, the only football powerhouse state is CA, which is where all the teams in the Pac 10 primarily recruit...Washington, Arizona, Oregon, etc...this dilutes the talent on the west coast but see how USC keeps the So Cal talent local...USC (and soon UCLA) will show you what CA talent can do. So I would say instead of calling it the Pac 10, I would suggest the Cali 2 (UCLA and USC) since they both will keep the local CA talent instate which will show the rest of the country what Cali football is all about. Name one SEC team that can stand toe to toe with USC?? They scarred down there.

One more thing this whole spread option offense craze has one downside, from the NFL point of view, it doesn't develop NFL QB passing skills...but it does put more decision making in the QB's hands instead of just following what a OC tells him..so maybe it is a tradeoff, lack of pure passing skills but greater/wiser decision making capability.

And one one more thing, as far as NFL talent goes..the league should contract, the talent is already looking diluted and it is pretty obvious...look at the QB position, Vinny Testeverde was still playing at 43!!, how many OL, DB, even RB, or whatever are playing at 43..because if the talent was readily available you wouldn't have 43yo guys no matter how good because you can't compare a 43yo man (physically) against a 23yo man, absence steroids or HGH, there is no comparison becasue after 19-20yrs in the league no way can your body hold up...look at all the old players that can barely walk, like Earl Campbell (I never saw him play in person, but his highlights are legendary) he has to get around in a golf cart and he can't stand up for long periods of time not to mention the possibility of early onset dementia (all the concussions, especially when Tatum popped him on that goal line play).

Where is T Priddy, or T Prime? Does he post on your blog.

Roderick

Anonymous said...

I agree with you about the ACC, but don't forget VaTech. That third legit team makes up for a lackluster league. But the U and the Noles ain't what they used to be...remember the U in the early part of this century, now that is what you call a dynasty. They pretty much owned the 1st round of the NFL draft for three years straight and even broke a USC record for the most 1st rounders (in a five year period I think).

The reason why The Ohio State buckeyes look so crappy in the championship game is the reason why the spread option embarrassed Michigan two weeks in September. Ohio state is not used to speed opponents, remember the Big 10 (Woody Hayes) philosophy...three yards and a cloud of dust. When Rich injects the Big 10 with the Spread option then that will prepare teams in that conference for when they meet teams from the South and West Coast. You saw what USC did to Illinois and Michigan right? Blew them out the box, speed kills.

There is one more thing about QBs in the NFL...the smart ones with good IQs have an advantage too, Eli Manning and Brady have similar IQs. Lets face it to memorize and improvise a complex offensive scheme the QB must posses a high IQ. This is why when teams have a black QB, I hear things like they had to simplify the offensive scheme (not every black QB, Donovan McNabb I never heard them say this..but many times I hear that alot when commentators are talking about black QBs, and it is irritating but I guess the best way to solve this is by placing the high IQ black players at QB first instead of at other positions). That is tantamount to saying our scheme is too complex for this darky to grasp, you know how them people are. But then again Dan Marino had a very very low wonderlic score (very close to Vince Young's score), which may explain why the Dolphins went to the superbowl only once with Dan Marino. Maybe his lack of IQ was exposed in high pressure/intense playoff situations, after his initial success in the league (teams adjusted to him, but he could not make further adjustments with such a low IQ).

Sorry I meant to say UCLA will be the other team in the Pac 10. USC is still the foundation of the league but soon once slick Rick has his recruiting classes locked and loaded USC will have company. It may not be equal company for a few more years but atleast it will be competitive after that. So mark my words after the next three years, the Pac 10 title will go to either USC or UCLA for near future, assumming slick Rick and Pete stay put. But until then, USC will continue to own the league.

What do you mean by bias for USC, they go and play anyone anywhere...they don't duck opponnets. Remember when they visited Arkansas and put a old fashion whuppin on them hogs.

So your saying Rich R, won' have better talent available at Michigan as compared to WVU. Considering he was able to do what he did with only Pittsburgh area talent, also don't forget that is Penn State recruiting turf, is impressive and now that he has Michigan as his platform..he is going to go apeshit on the Big 10. He'll do to the Big 10 what USC does to them every year, run rings around them until they are forced to be like him and adopt the spread option. And then the Big 10 will be ready for any team coming out of the SEC.

Roderick

Anonymous said...

After what they did to Ty, I can't stand Notre Dame. I tune in to NBC just to see them lose and struggle....Charlie won those games with Ty's players. That what got him that contract, I don't hate him personally I just hate the way Notred Dame didn't give Ty his five year try out like every other Notre Dame coach. Notre Dame will never be a factor for the simple reason that after Lou Holtz left, they couldn't recruit the types of players Florida, LSU, and everybody else (except the ivy league and stanford) can recruit.

Whether Ty is a good coach or not, now we will tell because at UW he can bring in all the thugs he wants...just ask Jeremy Stevens. He won't be handicapped like he was at stanford and notre dame, academic standards what a joke...what a way not to win, snob ivy league wannabes.

Roderick